There, in the midst of the nights of the month of Ramadan, those who remain awake until the clock strikes midnight, to blow from the depths of darkness and break the silence of the night, beating the drums, calling the sleepers to wake up, while it beats the violent beats of the tightly-knit drums.
They are the creatures of the Ramadan night, or the mischief, that word that stirred in the souls nostalgia for the recent past, before the spread of satellite channels that do not sleep.
Today, people are divided about the Mishars, some of them are annoyed by them, and others - especially children - are rejoicing at their sight.
In undeclared sessions, and before the start of the first night of the Msharatiyeh activity, secret arrangements for the magical night world of the sorcerers take place among the sons of the seasonal, passing profession.
Misratan grace
Samah, a young female masquerade in the middle of his third decade of life, stood at the beginning of the current Ramadan near the entrance to one of the closed residential compounds in the Giza Governorate, asking the security official for permission to enter, but he refused decisively to prevent disturbing the residents.
The Misratan is of a small body, to the point that it cannot carry the drum all the way, so it hangs it on the handlebars of a bicycle that runs in the streets, and I was surprised that more than one area has fences and gates, and it is forbidden to walk in it.
Samah complains sadly: "I agreed to pay 500 Egyptian pounds (about 15.60 pounds) to Shehata, who was my old female sorcerer who had a monopoly on this area. I paid it in two installments of the proceeds of my first rounds, according to my agreement with him."
Later, Samah discovered that the old marshallah had put in place a long time ago on the vast areas he used to pass through, then he gave them up for one or more magazines, contenting himself with money that he would receive from them in exchange for this concession, after he sat with them once or twice, teaching them some of the principles of the profession, including the passages of praise with the names of the residents And addresses of their homes.
Karima Al Masharatiyeh, children gather around her every night (Al Jazeera)
Shehata areas
No one can work in these areas except with Shehata's permission, because - by virtue of the fact that he has been working there since his youth half a century ago - he knows many of its residents by name, and they know him, and if he communicates with them, he can warn them against dealing with any new sorcerers, accusing him of being a thief, for example. Or a beggar, according to Samah in her interview with Al-Jazeera Net.
Two months before Ramadan, Samah's husband stopped working because of his illness, so she worked in jobs that did not prevent her from taking care of her children while they were next to her, such as selling vegetables and fruits on the roadside, "but the returns were not sufficient for the family's needs and the husband's treatment requirements."
Samah sought an additional source of income, so a neighbor interceded for her with the old sorcerer who had given her part of his work area in exchange for some of her expected income from her nightly tours.
This income varies, so it happens that one night the baskets go down from one of the balconies to the young sorcerers carrying a few pounds, and once next to the pounds are placed foods for suhoor such as yogurt, boiled eggs and some loaves of bread, and sometimes the residents are content to put only foods.
Praises and names
Samah uses a very high tone of voice, surprisingly, coming out of her small throat, to call upon the inhabitants the names of the dignitaries of the region and its generosity, names that the old sorcerers gave her.
The drum beats and then calls out the name of one of the residents when it approaches the house in which he lives. "It is the most successful way to get people to pay, but it does not work every night."
Among those praises that I memorized on Shehata are: “Al Hajja Sarah de Sitt al-Khair ... is good for the young and the old,” and “Oh Bash, engineer Muhammad, O Abu Al-Karam and Al-Joud ... Be healthy and healthy Rana, Ahmed and Mahmoud.
Despite these songs that sometimes succeed in pushing the population to pay, they caused her embarrassment more than once, when she called for a man's name, so his wife went out to her on the balcony, blaming her not to call him again, and one time she called for a woman's name, so her daughter asked her to tell her that she had died from the Coronavirus. Months ago.
These are two rivals
In an abandoned villa in the Haram area, owned by a businessman who was a star during the eighties of the last century, and then he was imprisoned, the villa janitor held a meeting in the villa garden between two quarrelsome friends of his magicians.
The two, Hamdan and Subhi, quarreled more than once last Ramadan, because of their constant clash whenever they met during nighttime tours on one of the streets in which they work.
Although they agreed last year to share the streets between them, the dispute occurred when Sobhi - according to Hamdan's account of Al-Jazeera Net - deliberately violated the agreement, by starting his tour a little earlier than his time, to precede his competitor in his work area because its returns are greater.
Hamdan was carrying his large drum over his shoulder, and as soon as he started his tour, knocking on the drum, heads looked out from the windows and balconies to blame him instead of thanking him, mocking him for taking the tour after his friend.
Ahead of the current Ramadan, Hamdan requested the intervention of their mutual friend to find a solution to prevent the renewal of the conflict, so the doorman gathered them and set them up in front of them a paper on which he drew a map of the disputed areas with his pen, and divided it to them after difficult negotiations, during which both of them stuck to the streets they know and know their owners, and they are generous in nature even though they are residents of popular areas Simple, warmth and more welcoming to the advent of Msharati, other than the high end areas
The two competitors agreed in the end after effort, so their friend Al-Bawab in the oath obliged them to implement the agreement, and he added that by reading Al-Fatiha collectively on implementation.
The two competitors return to work
With the end of Ramadan, the two competitors return to fully devote themselves to their original work. Hamdan is a car driver, while Subhi works with a clamor, in contracting work that has become few. As for the seasonal work, it is charmed, although it is temporary, it helps with its revenues in the expenses of Ramadan and Eid, and "it is generally better work than begging. The blameworthy, as some view the magicians as a beggar in disguise, "according to Subhi's expression to Al-Jazeera Net.
The Masharatis are generous
As for Karima, a female marshallah who works for the fifth year in a row in a village in the southern governorate of Assiut, she took up the seasonal work as a substitute for her blind husband, who was no longer able to do night tours, in which she was accompanied by a guide and guide.
Karima not only inherited her husband’s drum or the vocabulary of his seasonal profession, but also the problems of the profession, including her being harassed by men who think her weakness as a woman, trying to oppress her in the streets in which she works, and crowding her into it, to the point that they deliberately enter the streets she passes through and hurry Stepping out in anticipation of her.
Karima tells Al-Jazeera Net over the phone: They take advantage of their throats - as men - to be stronger, so they raise their voices with the call while violently knocking on the drum compared to my (simple) ways, "but" they plotted and God plots and God is the best of deceitful people. "
Karima Masharatiyeh while touring the village (Al-Jazeera)
Their behavior backfired, as the parents showed anger at this "annoying" method, while expressing sympathy for her, and they expressed that by giving her - and not the sorcerers the man - money and food.
As for the children, they clung to her and loved her easy way on the drum, so that they could take her by meters. on them.
The diver remains one of the secrets of the secret worlds of the night for the sorcerers, more than what the magicians see from balconies and behind windows, and what the sorcerers reveal about themselves on their own.